In industry, continuous conveyor belts are often utilized for transporting workpieces between various workstations. In doing so, such conveyor belts may gather debris and other contaminants, such as oil and grease, that may affect the quality of the workpiece or a manufacturing operation being performed on the workpiece. Thus, it is desirable to maintain the cleanliness of such conveyor belts in order to maintain the quality and efficiencies of a manufacturing environment.
Various methods and apparatus have been designed in an attempt to clean such continuous conveyor belts. The simplest methods involve having workers utilize rags or towels to wipe down the conveyor belts as the conveyor belts travel about their continuous loops. Of course, such operations require manual labor and are often met with limited or intermittent success.
Automatic conveyor belt cleaning devices have also been created to eliminate the need for manual labor. For instance, past conveyor belt cleaning devices have utilized automatic scraper edge designs for cleaning the conveyor belt. These systems rely upon the linear motion of a conveyor belt passing over a stationary wiper blade, which subsequently removes or diverts the debris and contaminants on the conveyor belt as required. Although such designs have realized a certain amount of success, the wiper blades often allow the contaminants to collect on the wiper blades, eventually leading to a certain amount of contamination finding its way back onto the conveyor belt, thereby requiring continuous monitoring of the wiper blades.
Other conveyor belt cleaning designs have utilized a rotating cylindrical element, such as a brush-type construction, which rotates in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the conveyor belt. Although such designs have realized a certain degree of success, such designs are relatively expensive, since they require the use of a motor or drive system, which are typically expensive and high in maintenance.
Other conveyor belt cleaning devices utilize a brush element which sweeps laterally across the conveyor belt. However, these systems are restrictive in their mode of operation, speed, and size. For instance, the brushing action is not uniform over the conveyor belt width, and its speed is, at best, only a direct 1:1 ratio of the conveyor belt speed. The design requires the rotating element to be offset with respect to the center line of the conveyor belt, which in turn produces a cleaning device of greater diameter than the actual belt width.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a conveyor belt cleaning apparatus that is simple, inexpensive, efficient, and small in stature.